Superintendent says CMS can get its money back if crisis alert system isn’t fixed

Superintendent Earnest Winston told Mecklenburg County Commissioners that the district expects to recoup money spent on a $1.75 million security system if the company cannot meet the deadline to get it to work.

At a joint meeting between the county commissioners and the Charlotte-Mecklenburg school board Wednesday, commissioners asked Winston about the district’s oversight of the security system project and what options it had with the company moving forward. So far, the district has paid the Georgia-based company, Centegix, $1.13 million.

Winston told commissioners that the decision to spend the money through purchase orders, without a signed contract, was legal and followed board policy. Former school board chair Mary McCray questioned the way CMS awarded deals to Centegix, and said that the board was not involved in the bid process.

When asked by commissioner Vilma Leake who should be held accountable for the problems with the system, Winston avoided assigning blame.

“In terms of who is at fault, I understand the spirit of your question,” Winston said. “What I want to convey is, as you alluded to, I inherited this situation. My job is to bring about resolution to the matter.”

Following questions from the Observer, Winston said at a news conference Jan. 10 that the system has not been working in the schools where it has been installed, and gave the company 30 days to fix the problems.

Emails from CMS employees show that despite warnings about the company and its product since at least May 2019, CMS moved forward with expanding the system. In August, Winston spoke at Charlotte East Language Academy to tout the district’s new security measures, including Centegix. Other officials conducted a demonstration of the alert system for reporters, even though the system was not fully functional at the time.

The system was paid for with money the county had set aside to boost school security in the wake of the fatal Butler High School shooting, and is designed to allow employees to trigger an alarm during emergencies by pressing a button on a card they carry with their ID badges.

Commissioners also asked CMS how it expected to get back the money it has already paid Centegix.

“I just want to know, you’ve given the company a deadline,” at-large commissioner Pat Cotham said. “What if they don’t meet it? Do you have hope to get your money back?”

Winston said that the district would exercise a provision to recoup the money. The CMS board did not sign a contract with Centegix, and a district spokeswoman later clarified that he was referring to the standard terms and agreements spelled out in the invitation for bids CMS issued.

Those terms state that “goods and services that are defective in workmanship or material or otherwise not in conformity with the requirements of the contract documents may be rejected and returned at the seller’s expense.”

Commissioner Trevor Fuller said he was concerned that the way the district operated in bringing on Centegix made it harder to hold the company accountable.

“I understand you did inherit this issue, but I did want to express some concern that a million dollars was spent under a purchase order system,” Fuller said. “We have allocated such a significant sum of money, well over a million dollars on this service.”

Winston said that he and the board were in conversations to ensure the district did not end up in a similar position in the future.

Winston also said that Centegix was meant to be an additional layer to the district’s security protocol, and that this academic year, no weapons have been found on school campuses.

This story was originally published January 22, 2020 at 5:48 PM.